regulator

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. One that regulates, as:

n. The mechanism in a watch by which its speed is governed.

n. A highly accurate clock used as a standard for timing other clocks.

n. A device used to maintain uniform speed in a machine; a governor.

n. A device used to control the flow of gases, liquids, or electric current.

n. One, such as the member of a governmental regulatory agency, that ensures compliance with laws, regulations, and established rules: banking regulators; price regulators.

n. A substance that affects the amount of product or the progress of a biochemical reaction or process: a regulator of embryogenesis.

n. See regulator gene.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. A device that controls or limits something.

n. A person or group that sets standards of practice, especially those established by law.

n. A very accurate clock, used by clockmakers to measure the timekeeping of each newly made clock.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. One who, or that which, regulates.

n. A contrivance for regulating and controlling motion.

n. The lever or index in a watch, which controls the effective length of the hairspring, and thus regulates the vibrations of the balance.

n. The governor of a steam engine.

n. A valve for controlling the admission of steam to the steam chest, in a locomotive.

n. A clock, or other timepiece, used as a standard of correct time. See Astronomical clock (a), under Clock.

n. A member of a volunteer committee which, in default of the lawful authority, undertakes to preserve order and prevent crimes; also, sometimes, one of a band organized for the comission of violent crimes.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. The original valve-motion of Watt's double-action condensing pumping-engine. It was a valve-box having a spindle through one of its sides, on which was a toothed sector working on a central bearing, and meshing with a rack attached to a valve. A tripping-lever attached to the sector and operated by the plug-tree caused the oscillations of the latter to open and close the valve.

A big regulatory challenge I heard from the Malaysian regulator is to avoid bogging down in the myriad unsavory, annoying but not terribly harmful practices that can dissipate supervisory energy, reserving resources to respond to those that can cause significant harm.

If Apple does launch their NFC phone and announces collaboration through Visa and Mastercard's payment network, do you honestly think with millions of iPhone 5's going out the door that the regulator is going to call a halt to payments from a phone?